Category Archives: HeroMachine 3

HM3: Driven

I’ve just updated the Companion-Vehicles set for the HeroMachine 3 Alpha with the following new items:

vehicles2

A couple are direct requests from the last thread, and the bottom four are a result of someone asking for vehicles that had a more frontal orientation so you could pose the character inside it. The motorcycle and the Jeep are more obvious, but I left out the seat and windshield of the convertible so your dude’ll show through, and the horse should be workable with a bit of body-dividing and layering.

I’m not sure what I am going to work on next … I am strongly inclined to do a bit of programming to clean up some of the messier bits, or to follow the suggestions Mark came up with through a usability study he did, or to complete more of the contest prizes, or tweak the save code, or any one of a dozen other things that need to be done in the non-drawing arena. I was crushing it during that abortive mini-version, and now this week, and I think I need a break for a few days from actual illustration. I’ll let you know for sure on Monday.

Plus, hopefully the female base template will be done soon and I can pick up with that when ready. No promises, but I’m hopeful.

So, anyway, have a good weekend and hope you like these seven new vehicles!

HM3: Staffing levels increase

I have just posted an update to the “ItemRightPolearms” set in the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. There are more than ten new items to Mark’s already great set, including a lance; cobra head (thanks Danny!); a naginata; and many more, directly from your list of requests. Here’s a screen shot of the previews for most of them:

polearms3

Hope you like ’em! I am assuming we’re done with Polearms for now, and will be moving on to more Vehicles in the morning unless I hear a surge of support for something else.

Many thanks again to Mark for doing most of the work on this, you saved my bacon, big guy!

HM3: Mech!

On one hand, I’m sad to report that the HM Mini I’ve been talking about has been canceled again. They didn’t like the coloring book idea, so the whole thing is dead at this point.

On the other hand, that loss is your gain, as I have now translated over all of the mech stuff from it to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha! It’s in two parts, “BodyMech” and “HeadMech”, with the Body set having torsos, arms, and legs. All of this was drawn at a three quarter angle view as opposed to the regular HM straight-on model, so the pieces aren’t going to work with most of the existing clothing and such. But you can build a pretty cool looking robot and some of the heads go well on existing creations, giving them a looking-off-into-space look.

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you some of the options:

mech1
mech2

Let me know what you think, and if you want me to edit the arms so they lack hands (allowing you to drop in your own from Left/Right Hand).

The next few days I’ll be working on cleaning this stuff up, adding some more to Mark’s great Polearms set, and then we’ll see from there.

HM3: Hot rides

I’ve just added the Companion-Vehicles set to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha, including the following:

vehicles

Most of these were drawn by using Flash’s automatic “Trace” feature and then patching, so they’re a little different stylistically than most of what is in the program. The very last car (not shown above), the 1920’s style roadster, was hand-drawn, I’m curious what you think of the difference between the tracing and the drawing styles. Auto-tracing (no pun intended) is a LOT faster than hand-drawing, I did about six of these in the time it took to draw the one roadster. But, if the quality is different enough, I’ll do what I have to do.

Let me know any other vehicles you’d like to see, and while we’re at it, any Polearm bits Mark didn’t include but that you want to see added in.

It looks like the Mini I was working on has been canceled after three weeks of hard work. Such is life. On the upside, most of these vehicles were drawn for it, so you’ll get some spillover benefit. Most of the rest of it is probably not applicable to the main HM but we’ll see.

HM3: Yet more polearmage

Mark has updated the ItemRightPolearms set with another group of items (including some favorites from 2.5) and a few tweaks to existing ones. Check it out when you get a chance, and thanks once again to Mark!

HM3: Girl stuff

With thanks to Demented the Clown for the gentle nudge and the painful (in a good way) face-plant of idiocy I subsequently administered to myself for not thinking of it before, I just posted the “TopsZombie” set to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. This should be of particular interest because it includes the Zombie Female tops like the cheerleader outfit, the fitted jackets, etc. so you can hopefully get a somewhat better female figure assembled a bit more easily.

Note that I was able to squeeze this in because it only took like thirty minutes. All I had to do was rename stuff and update the previews, so it was quick. The down side is that I don’t have time to do the tops up in the “new” style of removing the sleeves as separate elements, so for some of these you’re stuck with the arms in the regular down position.

This is just a quick and dirty stop-gap measure to get you something nicer than what we have, without implying that it’s the optimal or final resolution.

Anyway, hope you get some use out of it until we can get the real female template up and itemized. In the meantime, back to the Mini grind, which hopefully should be done soon.

HM3: Polearm update, Asian style

Mark added some new heads to the ItemRightPolearms set for HeroMachine 3, featuring several new Asian-inspired entries. Enjoy!

HM3: Polearms update!

Although I haven’t been able to work on the Polearms for HM3 due to the new mini, long-time HeroMachine contributor (and designer of many of the most-loved items from 2.x) Mark Shute has stepped up to the plate and generously offered his time to put together a set of them for you all to use and enjoy. His mix-and-match polearm shafts and heads are now available in the HeroMachine 3 Alpha in the ItemRight slot.

Let Mark and me know in the comments what you think of the new set. Once the new mini is out I’ll circle back and add in my own bunch of items to it as well, so it’s not complete by any means, but Mark’s provided a very solid and flexible collection that should greatly enhance your ability to make the perfect character illustration.

Enjoy them, and be sure to say thanks to Mark, he worked hard on these and did a great job!

HM3: On hold

Good news and bad news — we got another paying client for a HeroMachine Mini version! Wahoo! That’s good news because a) it continues to make the program valuable to UGO in a monetary sense (sales is what drives them) and b) it gives us a new toy to play with when it’s done.

However, it’s also bad news because it means work on HM3 will grind to a halt for the next 3-4 weeks while I crank non-stop on this very short deadline. So Polearms are going to be on hold, as will much of anything else except this new thing until further notice.

I’ll still be updating the blog on the regular schedule so by all means keep checking in, making suggestions, generating hilarity, etc, but I wanted you to know the latest status, and to not be too surprised as new releases come to a halt for the next little bit.

Hammerknight’s Recipes: Toon

(With many thanks to friend-of-the-site Hammerknight, who now presents you with suggestions on how you might use the new test Toon body. Enjoy, and be sure to thank him for volunteering his time! Click on an image to embiggen it for legibility.)

page-1
page-2